Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Monday, 4 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
IT has become a daily essential – a vital one at that, but how do we grab the viewers’ attention? How should content be? In this ever-evolving world, how do we make a mark and get them coming back to an application or a website?
At the World Summit Awards (WSA) 2013 held at The Kingsbury last week, a host of delegates from various countries gathered to have discussions on many IT-related topics.
Delivering the keynote speech, Minister of Scientific Affairs Professor Tissa Vitharana stated: “There is increasing 
population pressure; therefore we need rapid socioeconomic development.”
He added: “ICT is going to achieve this convergence of technology. We can maximise the coordination and initiative of the different technologies, but we have to harness it in common ground.”
Speaking on ICT knowledge, he emphasised: “The acquisition of knowledge should not be a process of teaching, but a process of learning. We have to achieve transference of knowledge based on each and every individual which can be achieved through ICT.”
In conclusion he stated that as a community, we have to find ways to maximise the knowledge of ICT.
Social entrepreneurship
The first session for the day was aimed at ‘Social Entrepreneurship, Social Activism, Youth Taking Action on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)’. Speaking on WSA’s objectives, WSA Chairman Peter A. Bruck stated: “Fighting poverty, hunger and diseases and education for all are the main objectives of the World Summit Awards.”
He also mentioned that 360 degree media should turn to 360 degree technology and while we are at it we should also revolutionise the way we look at things. He added: “We are not owners of technology, but recipients of it. We should not be users, but producers of technology.”
However, speaking of the young people of today, he said: “Young people use internet and mobile not for entertainment but because they see the use of it and to remove the lies formed by the bureaucrats.”
Creating sustainable e-content
“What challenges don’t other start-ups face? Financial and social value,” stated USA/Thailand Financial Advisor, Author and Blogger David Shelters addressing the gathering on ‘How to develop a sustainable e-Content Social Impact Venture’.
He explained that it is highly important to find the right balance between financial and social value. For instance, when it comes to a short term 
goal, increasing one value may impact another value, but on a long term goal, financial value should be sustainable. So how do we manage this?
To have quality content, Shelters explained that developers should focus on original and current content. Content 
comes into place by the increase of decisions made by viewers and other opportunities that generate revenues. However, he also pointed out that since there is an overload of information, quality content is not easily accessible.
In creating high quality content, six factors should be considered:
1.Actionable
Shelters stated that actionable content should and must drive people to make informative decisions. Liable laws that process start-ups should also be available.
2.Original
“New and primary sources create value. When you create original content, you have differentiation which results in sustainability,” stated Shelters. This also results in users coming back to the particular application due to unique content.
3.Emphatic
He also stressed on how content should be focused on a particular subject. It either should be passionate and interesting content so that it would grasp the user to keep coming back. This can be achieved by establishing an electronic community of interest like a blog for instance that would make users share their personal lives, touching subjects and give out testimonials which in return will create relationships. He added: “The benefits of electronic community of interest attracts passionate viewers and wins their loyalty.”
4.Engaging
To engage a user, having gamifications in applications improves user interest. However this depends on the particular application.
5.Current
Apart from information being original, it should also be current. Most people want to stay at the top of the game and are in need to constantly know what is happening in and around the country.
6.Accessible
Shelters mentioned that information should be simple and clean.
Achieving all six factors leads to containing rich and diverse content He pointed out, “Rich and diverse content helps create value for viewers, achieve sustainability and brings global perspectives to problem solving.”
On the panel discussion, speaking on e-Content, Gloria Silas from the African Queens Project stated: “Content should be consistent. It should connect web to social media.” Robert Ruz from You Are What You Post Mexico Project stated that content should be used to link, comment on and improve other content. Maninder Singh Bajwa from the iScuela India Project also gave his insights on e-Content adding, “Content partnerships with other countries can help scale up a start-up venture.”
Smart information
Speaking on the subject, ‘ICT, Youth and Smart Analytics – Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Experience,’ ADB Country Director Rita O´Sullivan stated that ADB is working with the Road Development Authority to develop a smart system that provides information when road projects are conducted.
She explained that ministries find it very hard to get information from other ministries, so by providing information online, that process is made easier as information can now be accessed on a free platform.
O’ Sullivan also commented on the country’s education system, stating: “Sri Lanka was always famous for its strong robust education system but the 30-year war has degraded the quality.” She suggested that distance learning like translating useful lessons to Sinhala can help lift the educational system. But at the same time, she also pointed out that value chains need to be analysed as not all teachers like e-learning.
One small idea can improve the income of a village. Proving that point, O’Sullivan explained how they bought a mobile device to the villagers of a particular village in Philippines. She noted that by providing them with a mobile phone, the income of the village increased by 60%. She added that villagers learnt to make calculations on the mobile phone which in turn helped them with their transactions.
Shelters commented: “Social impact start-ups are in better positions to collect data and research than larger companies. They are a big asset. Trust is a big asset too. Asian Development Bank provides a platform for you to get exposed and it’s a mutual benefit act.”
Furthermore, Ashoka India Country Director Vishnu Swaminathan pointed out that large institutions are not capable of holding small monies – they just don’t know how to deal with young entrepreneurs. He also stated that a young entrepreneur is really struggling with the money and the impact – he or she has no idea of the impact it would make.
Therefore, Swaminathan emphasised that mobilising communities is much more valuable than the technology itself adding: “Technology is just an enabler, not a solution, but we are looking at the social impact.”
Can social impact be measured? He added: “There is no way to measure social impact, but you can see the metrics.”
Future content
In the second session for the day which focused on the big subject ‘The Knowledge Society – Facts, visions and employment,’ USA Hemispheres Solutions LLC President and The George University Professor Govindan Nair spoke on ‘Demographics of the Future: Millions of Youth and Creation of Digital Content’.
He stated that by 2050, nine billion people are expected to be seen on the content tree. Even more on the real GDP market prices from 2002 to 2012 demographics, it showed that developing countries have been growing much faster in the last decade than developed countries.
However, only some developing countries will be able to gain the success of developed countries stated Nair adding: “Developing countries are catching up quicker than ever. But unfortunately this will take much more time than we expect.”
Nair mentioned that in the next few years we shall be seeing the largest pool in terms of human labor. He further stated that we should look at the ratio of productive population overall and not at the population growth. “Productive people can contribute only if they have right tools and skills. We cannot create entrepreneurs at 25 now. We need to create them at age of five.”
What are the jobs of the future?
99x Technology CEO & Co-founder Mano Sekaram revealed some shocking numbers on current unemployment. He revealed that 200 million people in the world are unemployed. Africa has the highest unemployment rate with 40 million workers unemployed while Asia came in second place with 27 million. There will be 600 million people coming in the next six years.
Speaking on his topic, ‘Jobs of the future: Best practice profiles, educational capital and sustainable careers for millions,’ he asked: “Whose job is it to creates jobs?” to which the answer was, ‘The private sector.’ He added: “Nine out of 10 jobs are created by the private sector.”
Sekaram further noted that job creation can only be done through entrepreneurships. He suggested, “Let’s forget about generating billions. Let’s create thousands of start-ups that create $ 1,000 a year; sustainable start-ups.”
Currently, the informal economy is a better trade than the formal economy. Sekaram noted that the informal economy is the second largest 
economy in the world after the USA. But how can we make 8.1 billion jobs by informal economy when the world has only seven billion people?
Sekaram pointed out that what we need right now is the four nexus of forces – social, mobile, content and cloud. He added, “If we can bring about informal economy and the nexus of forces, one thing that will happen is viral entrepreneurship.” Viral entrepreneurship is about coaching, broadband access, innovation, micro finance and access to market, pointed out Sekaram.
Skype
Skype is a major communication tool in the world but very little people know that Skype originated from Estonia. Consisting of only a population of 1.3 million,
Entrepreneur, Investor and former Skype Estonia MD Tiit Paananen on the subject ‘Skyping Estonia: Lessons learned for the development of an innovation ecosystem’ said that it was only pure luck and a ‘do it yourself’ attitude that created Skype.
Skype was bought by eBay for $2.6 billion just two years after it started. A few years later it was bought by Silver Lake for $2.75 billion. In 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for a staggering $8.5 billion. Paananen said: “The reason for the success of Skype is that it solved a basic communication need in people.” He also stated that Skype made entrepreneurs in Estonia dream big and believe that anything is possible.
Growth through innovation
“Knowledge is the more important asset than the hardest assets,” stated 3M Lanka Head of Marketing Suresh Anandappa, addressing the gathering on ‘Driving growth through innovation’.
He noted that while research transforms money to knowledge, innovation transforms knowledge to money adding, “In order to have a knowledge focused company, a knowledge infused environment is needed which results in innovation.”
At 3M, innovation is planned, purposeful and relentless mentioned Anandappa adding: “Innovation driven by systems, principles and infrastructure are harnessed by the company.”
3M follows seven practices: customer inspired leadership innovation, strong leadership, broad base for technology, environment for sharing, quantifying the efforts, corporate culture and storytelling.
In conclusion, he said: “At 3M, every employee is encouraged to work 15% on their own projects. If it’s good, then 3M will action/take it forward.”
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
